Originally posted by: Bowfinger
Originally posted by: Queasy
Originally posted by: RightIsWrong
Do you think that a "find more to use" policy is better than a "use less of what we have and save the rest" policy?
That is what is appears to be coming down to. Many people want to drill more so that it will be cheaper and we can go on about our blissful, ignorant ways instead of realizing that this is a finite resource and the less we drill and the less that we use today....the longer it will last us into the future.
The drop in demand from the United States and other developed countries will not make up for the continual increase in demand from India, China, and other developing countries.
High fuel prices are killing the economy right now and future demand will keep it high. Securing more supply of not only oil but natural gas as well (that's being blocked by the OCS ban as well) will help secure reasonable prices that won't drag the economy down until we reach a point to where our dependence on oil is negligible.
There are other things we should be doing as well such as :
- getting rid of the ethanol mandate which increases price and reduces fuel efficiency while increasing the price of food
- come up with one, maybe two or three, gas blends for the entire nation instead of the hodge podge of a couple of dozen of blends that artificially restricts supply regionally and increases price.
The immediate problem with expanded drilling is it does essentially nothing to relieve high prices today. It will be several years at a minimum before the new oil supplies reach the market.
The mid-term problem with expanded drilling is it will be a drop in the bucket. The amount of additional oil it will eventually add to our oil supply would help, but only to about the same extent as simple conservation measures like properly-inflated tires and well-tuned engines. That was Obama's point. Moreover, conservation measures can begin helping immediately, unlike expanded drilling.
The long-term problem with expanding drilling is it encourages our addiction to oil. That is a dead-end. Oil is a finite resource. Oil prices will continue their painful rise as demand increases and supplies inevitably start decreasing. The only long-term solution is for the United States to move away from oil as aggressively as it can. Expanded drilling is a feel-good gimmick that serves only to distract Americans from committing to actions that really matter, expensive measures like a major investment in alternative energy, hard measures like changing our wasteful lifestyles ... and simple conservation measures like tire pressure and tune-ups.
Our need for oil is never going to go away. There are too many non-energy needs that will be far tougher to replace. As oil supplies dwindle over the next century, those other uses for oil will become far more pressing than gasoline. When that day comes and oil is $10K a barrel, wouldn't it be nice to have untapped stockpiles right off of our coast? Let's not squander them today just so people can get two or three more years out of their SUVs.